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Thursday 21 November 2013

Looking at language learning technologies for conversation

I have been examining some online language learning tools focussing on conversational English, assessing whether they offer a good experience. And talking to several colleagues about the issues of instructing in accent, tone, personal interplay and so on over the internet.

First up, DuoLingua.



I created an ID as a French speaker wanting to learn English. The whole effort seems to drive to obtaining my Facebook login. I didn't give it. The test and pedagogy were mickey-mouse. The premise that my friends in social media would support me was laughable.

Next, Telelangues (Berlitz recently bought them)

This is full of gimmicks and false promises about support and community. A tracking pentagon representation of progress - these are functions, not products. The idea of communication has become lost. It treats language as a technical skill, and speaking as a subset of that. You can't help feeling that the aim of aggregating eyeballs on site is never far behind its teaching goals.


Language Lab was my next visit. This is a virtual world simulation based approach, focussing on sectors such as Oil & Gas, and Aviation, and Higher Ed, where there is known demand for English communication. There is a principle behind it - immersion, which they compress into the acronym VERITAS. But it's not a pedagogical framework that any educator or course-publisher would recognise. The monetisation model is simple (you pay) so you don't have the annoying feeling that you are being pulled in to support someone's revenue-generating aim.

The feedback on pronounciation is detailed, excellent even, but I wonder how many students can take in a panel of instruction like this:




Pearson is the one to watch, however. What is Pearson's play in this space ? They have Versant, Voxy and Global Education Technology Group (GETG) [Chinese] as the spoken language technology brands, and I can't yet see a single vision for conversation training across the Pearson stable. But a birdie tells me they are surely working on it.

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